Tech Lands Six on the Academic All-District At-Large Teams

Jun 15, 2011

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Six MIT
student-athletes were recently named to the Capital One Academic
All-District At-Large teams, including a pair that also garnered
national recognition from the College Sports Information Directors
of America (CoSIDA). In addition to sophomore swimmer, Wyatt
Ubellacker, and field hockey standout, Molly McShane, who landed on
the Academic All-America squads, Keri Dixon, Beth Stavely, Tim Lee
and Columbus Leonard earned regional recognition as part of
District One. The At-Large category is traditionally the most
competitive of the CoSIDA awards, as it encompasses the sports of
bowling, crew, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey,
lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, water polo
and wrestling.

Dixon, a teammate of McShane on the field hockey squad, received
Academic All-District accolades for the second year in a row. The
senior goalkeeper was a First Team pick in 2010 and 2011 before
graduating from the Institute last week with a degree in Mechanical
Engineering.

Stavely, who was a Second Team All-District selection, earned a
pair of All-America honors on the diving board at this year’s
NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championship. The senior
finished in eighth place on the 3-meter board and 15th
in the 1-meter competition to help the Cardinal and Gray finish in
15th as a team, one of the program’s best showings
at the national championship.

Lee was a Second Team honoree on the men’s side, following
an outstanding season with the MIT men’s volleyball squad.
The senior captain was named the North East Collegiate Volleyball
Association (NECVA) New England Division Player of the Year and
earned spots on the New England Division First Team and the NECVA
All-Conference Second Team. He helped Tech to its seventh-straight
20-win campaign and led the team to its second New England Division
crown.

Leonard joined Ubellacker on the men’s First Team
All-District. Just a junior, Leonard has already established
himself as one of the top goaltenders in MIT water polo history. An
Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) honorable
mention All-American in 2010, Leonard owns the Institute records
for career saves with 623 and his 21 stops in a game against Queens
College earlier this year is also a program best. This spring,
Leonard traveled to Nicaragua where he developed a system for
preserving orange juice in an airtight container to allow the
townspeople to maximize their profits based on the market value of
oranges.

As First Team selections, McShane and Ubellacker advanced to the
national ballot and ultimately earned Capital One Academic
All-America honors, the sixth and seventh MIT student-athletes to
be recognized by CoSIDA this year and the 170th and
171st in Institute history. MIT is fourth all-time and
first among Division III Institutions in this category.